This proposal is for a conference grant for the Fourteenth Microbial Genomics Conference[unreadable] (formerly the E. coli and Small Genomes Conference, and the Microbial Genomes Conference) to be[unreadable] held September 24-28, 2006, at the UCLA conference center at Lake Arrowhead, California.[unreadable] The genomics landscape has changed now that numerous genomes are available and that[unreadable] microarrays and bioinformatics methods are advancing rapidly. It is a critical time to foster multidisciplinary[unreadable] approaches to making sense out of all the genomic sequence information. Considerable[unreadable] integration of different aspects of microbiology will undoubtedly take place, including new[unreadable] perspectives on evolution and the requirements for life. To achieve these goals, particularly of[unreadable] integration and synergy, scientists from diverse disciplines must interact. Thus, this conference will[unreadable] include active genome researchers, such as sequencing experts and informatics specialists working[unreadable] in database design, sequence analysis, or simulation; geneticists developing new methods to take[unreadable] advantage of genomic information, e.g. for functional analysis; and cell biologists and biochemists[unreadable] who have specialized in areas now ripe for genomics such as metabolism, chromosome structure, or[unreadable] gene regulation. One focus of this conference will also be synthetic biology, namely, the modeling[unreadable] and constructing circuits and pathways and generating organisms with new capacities. An additional[unreadable] focus will be on microbial communities and biodiversity, including pathogens and biothreat agents.[unreadable] This has a direct bearing on human health. This meeting has become established as a major annual[unreadable] microbial genomics conference during the last fourteen years and has assured status and quality.